Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Eight Union Ministers will tour Northeast in every single fortnight. They will include Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State with Independent Charge and Ministers of State.
This was disclosed here today by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, after a meeting attended among others by Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Kiran Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs and senior officers of the Ministry of DoNER to finalize the roster for the tour of various Ministers.
Dr Jitendra Singh further informed that during the first fortnight from January 1 to 15, among others, Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (IC) for Commerce, Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of State (IC) for Youth Affairs & Sports and Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs undertook tour of the States of Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam and Nagaland.
In the second fortnight of January from 16 to 31, a request has been made, among others, to Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Mines and Steel, D.V.Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Law and Justice, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister of Civil Aviation, Ram Kripal Yadav, Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Minister of State for Agriculture to undertake similar tours to eight Northeast States.
Between February 1 to 15, Dr Jitendra Singh added, it was planned that Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Uma Bharati, Minister of Water Resources, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and Dr Najma Heptulla, Minister of Minority Affairs will be requested to undertake similar tours. Among the Ministers of States with Independent Charge and Ministers of States, Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Planning, Manoj Singh, Minister of State for Railways and Pon Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping are also being requested to undertake tours during the month of February.
Dr Jitendra Singh informed that he himself will be travelling to one of the eight Northeast States in every fortnight which, in other words, means that he would be on a tour to Northeast twice a month and, if not feasible, at least once in a month.
These tour programmes, Dr Jitendra Singh said, had been planned on the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was keen for a special focus on Northeast. During these tours, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the visiting Minister will take a review of the works related to his/her Department and also participate in important events taking place in the region.
At today’s meeting, it was also decided that in order to ensure maximum utility of the tour by Union Ministers, on the one hand the North Eastern Council (NEC) with its headquarters at Shillong will coordinate, on the other hand, the DoNER Ministry will also fix responsibility of its officers stationed at Guwahati to maintain the liaison with the visiting Ministers since Guwahati is the first airport at which dignitaries are expected to land for undertaking further tours in the region.
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